Joan Smith of the Hacked Off campaign said: "it's almost symbolic that you know after so many years people have been held to account for this culture of criminality and unethical behaviour at the heart of the newsroom of one of the most important newspapers in the country".

A friend of Coulson, Jane Moore, commented: "to be honest, this has been a painfully long legal process for everybody involved and I think (Coulson has) conducted himself with great dignity and integrity throughout".